Got another letter from them yesterday (dated 3 days after the last letter) telling me they are sending a bailiff to collect my things within the next 2 weeks. I thought enough is enough and called them.... Equita: Have you called to pay the outstanding £263 Me: Nope Equita: Have you called to arrange a payment plan Me: Nope Equita: Then why have you called? Me: To get an apology from Equita! He then said the outstanding balance is for council tax, i told him the council tax has been paid and the outstanding costs were bailiff charges which were illegal. I then carried on using words like fraudulent, vulnerable, harrasment etc. The guy then said he had escalated the matter to his manager who will call back Later on in the evening I got a call back and i was prepared for a war, but the manager was actually pretty good, i fibbed and said the owner of the vehicle who had the car levied doesnt want to send out the information to Equita as they have seen them on Watchdog, the manager just looked through the history and said that they will take off all bailiff charges and just charged the visit fees of £42 which i happily paid Hopefully thats an end to the saga, just a quick thanks to everyone who has helped out.

do you guys think this would suffice?

Not sure if this is gonna help me, but my partner has not changed her address on her V5, she still has it at her previous address...If i send this without insurance docs it would still prove ownership of the car isnt mine

I asked the council a while ago to send the bailiffs a letter confirming all outstanding balance payments, which they have as the bailiffs have acknowledged that payment, but they are still demanding the levy charges. What if I send a copy of the V5 documents but black out the addresses and say I dont trust them with the information but have provided proof that the vehicle is not owned by me?

does it make a difference if we are not married? I just dont know what the next steps to take are

I am not a named driver on my partners insurance. They did hand deliver the first visit letter. I dont want to really give my partners details to equita, I just dont trust what they would do with the information

Will the levy be valid even if its owned by my partner who is not named on any of the letters/demands/orders etc?

Im Back I sent a letter to Equita telling them that they have not removed the invalid Levy fee, they responded by saying that they contacted the bailiff and he has stated that I knew that a levy was made. They have also asked for V5 and insurance docs to prove that I am not the owner of the vehicle. Couple of things: 1) The letter states that 'he' (the bailiff) knew I made a levy...but the bailiff is female and I have pointed out that everytime I spoke to them it was a male who has not been proven to be a certified bailiff...any idea why this would be the case? 2) Yes I knew about the Levy fee and stated in my first correspondance to them I knew about it and that the vehicle in question is not mine 3) My worry is that the vehicle is my partners and she lives in the property, but is not named on any of the liability orders or demand for payment or any of the bills from the council, if I send the V5 and insurance docs can they count it as a valid levy? 4) The levy on the car was made on the first visit by the bailiff, I thought this can only be done on the 2nd visit....am I right or wrong? if I am right surely me sending the V5 and insurance docs shouldnt be applicable

I just checked the notice of seizure and inventory of goods form left by the bailiff on the 1st day and they added £213.50 on that day when they levied my partners car.....which means all those charges where for that 1 day. Should i be making a complaint? what is stopping them from coming down and actually finding my car outside this time and levying it with the disputed balance of £213.50?

levy visit and attendence/removal fee is for the same day..which was their first visit the statutory visit is probably going to be for the second visit by default.

Got a response from Equita this morning. They have given me a breakdown of what I owe them.....I have paid off the original outstanding amount for the council tax to the council, the only thing outstanding is the bailiff fees. Breakdown is as follows: Liability order: 21/09/11 Period upto: 31/3/12 Debt: £510.61 Statutory Visit fees: £42.50 Levy/Visit Fees: £41.00 Attendence/Removal Fees: £130.00 Total: £724.11 Payment Received: £510.61 Balance £213.50 Are these charges something I should be paying? The first visit was 7 days after the letter was sent (my understanding is it should have been 14days) on first visit levy was done on my partners car (who's name is not on the liability order) 2nd visit was some time later on and I paid off the outstanding amount to the council. Who should i be contacting in regards to the fees?

Ok guysI have paid off the initial outstanding amount via Bham city councils automated service. I'm not sure what I should do about the bailiff charges now. Told the bailiff the car they levied on isnt mine, but they have not said they will take away the costs. They have sent another hand posted letter saying they will come to collect all outstanding amounts by Saturday 7.15am and can get the goods even in my absence. This has obviously freaked me out. Should I tell them that I have paid the amount off to Bham city council? Would i still need to pay the enforcement fee of £200 odd quid they charged? Is that a valid charge considering its not my car they levied? I didnt get a 14 day notice letter before the bailiff was sent out, also the certified bailiff isnt registered under Equita on the certified bailiffs database but under a different company. It was a female bailiff and the 1 call i had with them it was a male who answered the phone...do I have any reasonable grounds not to make the payment?

It is...I can see where your goingBut surely DVLA will not be able to give out that information to a bailiff

Dont think BCC have her name or anything...its always been under my name, whats stopping me from saying that its my friends car etc

Not heard anything from Equita yet.Just had a look at what they actually left me was Form 7 Notice of seizure and Inventory of goods, which lists my partner car (she is not the one who owes the money).There isnt a breakdown of costs just Bailiff costs of £213.50 added onto the original amount of £510 I owe BCC. As this is the first visit should it not just be £24.50?

I'm in a similar boat to you mate...im kind of stuck atm

Just another note, the letter was from Equita, the Bailiff who left the letter was[EDIT] (admins please delete if I cannot put names, apologies if this is the case) on the certified Bailiffs list her employers are GSD Collections, the number that I had dialled was answered by a[EDIT] (didnt catch his surname)

I will send the letters out today, but how can I be sure that no more charges will follow as I did say I will call the Bailiff back tonight? Can I make a weekly payment via the telephone automated service or does it have to be online to the Council? The name on the hand letter with the contact number does not match....the hand delivered letter has a female bailiff called Sarah Biseker but when I called the contact number it was a male called Paul. Hallowitch, does that mean I should have a written notice 14days before a visit? I will find out the details of charges when I get home later as I do not have it on me at the moment.

Bailiff company is Equita This is the first visit I think (well I know of) Partners car isnt worth much £1000 at most, but can they levy my partners car legally?

Hi All,Joined the forum just hoping that I can get any kind of sound advice. My council tax payments fell behind to the point where i got a summons letter. I call up Bham city council asking for direct debit payments to be taken, but as there was a payment still to be cleared they said to call back in a few days to set it up, payments can be made on 21st or 28th of each month. Me being the lazy man that I am didnt call back, when it came to the next month I just paid what was due for the installment before the 21st.I received a letter on Tuesday 22nd November from Equita saying to pay off £553 of council tax oweing (amount due to the council was £510) if not a bailiff will come to my house. The day after I came home from work to find a letter which has been hand posted by an Equita Bailiff saying he has come round but no answer, I have 24 hours to pay the full amount, he has also for some reason Levyed my partners car which was parked on the drive. Breakdown given was £510 oweing plus £210 bailiff fee, so £740 is oweing. In a panic I called City council but they just refereed me to the bailiff again. Called bailiff but no answer. Today morning I got a call back saying he wants payment, I told him the car wasnt mine and I wasnt happy that I was given 1 days notice from the date i received the letter. I later realised that the letter was dated on 15th November so unsure why it took so long to arrive (whether it was Royal Mail being slow or underhand tactics from Equita I don't know). I told the bailiff I will call him back later on this evening to try and get some sort of payment plan ( I hope anyway). My questions are: Should the council have sent me a letter before it was sent to bailiffs?The letter though dated 15th didnt reach me till the day before bailiffs, surely there should be a 14 day rule to give someone time? The bailiff charges are about 40% which seems extremely high is that the going rate?Can they take my partners car even if she has nothing to do with the outstanding amount? Is there anyway I can pay the amount off but without paying the extra £200?The amount oweing was £510 but the initial letter had £553, no breakdown on what looked like a photocopied paper with no signature (except 'Bailiff Manager'), would this be a techniqality problem as I could easily assume that this was a fraudulent company trying to make money out of me? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I hope I have posted in the correct Forum sectionThanks